Reach for the Sky: 3 Quick Newsletter Marketing Tricks You Need in Your Life [Bloggers Edition]

As a blogger, your email list is one of the most significant assets you have.

That’s right. Your email list is the Robin to your Batman. Or the cheese to your macaroni.

Here’s why.

If you have been blogging for a couple of months now, you are probably familiar with the fact that there are many ways you can promote the posts. You can create Facebook Ads of your articles, advertise on StumbleUpon, promote them on Quora, etc.

When you think about all those promoting techniques, you’ll realize that most of them are either time-consuming or money-draining. Or both.

Well, what if we told you there was a method to promote your posts for free, that doesn’t require investing more than 15 minutes of your day?

That’s when newsletter marketing joins the party.

Reaching out to the people that signed up for your newsletter is not only the quickest way to promote your content, but is also free and allows you to get in touch with your audience without having to think about search engine rules and boundaries. This is precisely the reason why we included a newsletter widget in all our blogging themes.

As it usually goes, there’s a problem. If you are a blogger newbie, you probably don’t know where to start with the newsletter marketing.

How are you going to get those subscribers? How are you going to make sure they open the email? Should you place ads in your newsletter? Who knows!

But, don’t worry, we got you covered.

In the following text, we have prepared for you three quick newsletter marketing tricks that will help you get subscribers, increase your email open rate and advise you how to partner up with a brand properly. Here they are:

Disclaimer: Themes Kingdom team is not affiliated with any of the mentioned tools in this post nor do we earn a commission if you end up using and/or purchasing any of the tools and plugins through referral links in this blog post. We merely wanted to name some services that can help you get started with the newsletter marketing.

“Get More Subscribers” Trick: Have a #giveaway on Social Media

If you have just over a dozen subscribers on your blog, it’s the perfect time to raise those numbers.

The one quick newsletter marketing trick that will help you fill up your email list is having a giveaway on social media. Here’s how it works.

The first step you need to take is deciding what you are going to offer your followers (and users, in general). Is it going to be the latest, trendy product that had sparked an interest even before it appeared on the market? Perhaps tickets to a conference or a best-selling book? It’s up to you to decide, based on the industry you are in and the target audience you wish to reach.

The second step is deciding on the rules of the giveaway, that is, what social media users and your followers need to do to enter the contest (following you on Instagram, liking your page on Facebook, etc.). One of those steps should be subscribing to your newsletter.

The third and the last step is writing a compelling copy that will explain all the steps a user should take. Here’s what your giveaway tweet should contain:

a quick explanation of the rules users need to follow to enter your contest,

a link to your newsletter subscription (you can use Bitly.com or another link shortener, so you have more space to write the rest of the tweet text),

#giveaway and your industry related hashtags,

date and time the giveaway ends,

a picture of the product you are giving away,

an emoji or two, just to keep things interesting.

And that’s it! If, in a day or two, you feel like the number of your subscribers isn’t high as you expected it to be, you can always start a countdown, mentioning how much time is left until the end of the contest.

“Get Subscribers to Open the Email” Trick: Write an Eye-Catching Subject Line

As you might know, a big part of newsletter marketing is the subject line.

A subject line is the one factor on which your subscribers decide whether they are going to open the email or not, and that is why it needs to be attractive and attention-grabbing.

Here are some tips that can help you create a compelling subject line:

The subject line should contain between six and ten words, as this number of terms leads to the highest open rate, 21%. Our advice is to keep the subject line on about 50 characters 一 it’s more than enough.

Be sure to personalize, by adding your subscribers’ names into the subject line.

If you are offering some exclusive content, be sure to announce that in the subject line. For example, you can add mention that they are in for an infographic or guide treat.

Turn your subject line into a call-to-action. All you need to do is add some positive and empowering verbs and adjectives that will invite your subscriber to click, like “create”, “make”, “cook”, “enjoy” are.

Ask a question to ignite your readers’ curiosity.

Avoid using caps and multiple exclamation points.

If you are not sure whether you have written a proper subject line, check it using the Headline Analyzer, a tool which analyzes subject lines, based on the word count and character length.

Now that you are a bit more familiar with how you should write a subject line, we must mention that you shouldn’t forget to test your subject lines to find which ones work best for your audience. Who knows, maybe they enjoy reading a longer subject line that is in the form of a question! It’s up to you to find out.

“Promote a Product in the Newsletter” Trick: Use MailChimp to Track Down Sales

As your follower base grows, brands in your industry will start to reach out to you, offering you the opportunity to partner up with them and become a part of the affiliate marketing practice. The way it works is that you promote their products and get paid.

One of the ways a product promotion can be done is via your newsletter. If you decide to include a product promotion in your email, you are becoming an ad space seller, and the company you partnered with will determine whether they are interested in paying that much for an ad, based on the number of people that are expected to open the email. But, before you say Yes to every offer that comes along, stop for a minute and think about this type of partnership.

Although it is truly amazing that someone has recognized your work (and is willing to pay for it!), partnering up with a brand is a double-edged sword. Don’t get us wrong, standing behind a company whose products you enjoy using is an ethical thing to do. However, your subscribers and followers might start to think otherwise, questioning the reasons you affiliated with the company in question (you are only “in” for the money) and the things you say about their product(s).

To avoid confusion, be sure to partner up with a company whose product(s) you mentioned more than a couple of times in your blog content, even before you started working with a brand. Once you become an affiliate, be sure to mention that you loved their products in the past and are excited to work with a brand whom you have supported for the longest time.